@STEM2017 , I don’t know if advances in salary show confidence in the future of the economy, but both D and a good friend of hers have been given substantial advances. Clearly some sectors seem to feel that there is a need to keep these young new hires on board, and these companies must feel they will continue to do well financially.
@Lindagaf This is forward thinking. Things will get better eventually and some firms want to be prepared. Bravo!
D’s company implemented more stringent covid precautions as the number tick up in GA. IMO, they were already doing a good job but people are being even more cautious. They also paused on bringing more staff back to the plant.
D said there is no way that they’ll be bringing the co-ops to corporate for final reporting and it will be conducted over zoom. That means she’ll be able to come home a week early and have two weeks to quarantine if still required (which we expect it will be).
Internship for our S going smoothly. He just extended it to run the rest of this year. He’ll also be taking classes online so I hope he can juggle everything successfully. He knows - school comes first.
Younger S’ internship technically ended last week. He did a presentation of the project for the powers that be and they’ve extended an invitation for him/friend to continue whenever they are home on breaks. And they’ve agreed to hire two of his friends who are doing college online at home this fall. And a bonus, we just got an email that our employer is giving us a hazard pay bonus this month. Part time employees will also get something depending on their hours => a few extra hundred bucks for S! He was thrilled.
And older S started his financial job this week. He was hired last December with a start date of August 10th. I’ve been afraid to mention it much for fear it would evaporate. But so far, so good. Crossing fingers and toes it continues.
DD’s internship in San Diego ended last week, left with a soft job offer for next year. She’s not sure if that’s where she wants to work, but feels like she can go back if she wants. All in all we are pleased that she was able to have an in person experience.
One interesting aside: The other two interns in her firm were both 2020 college graduates, not rising seniors. My take is that this is a reflection of the tight job market caused by the pandemic, also might be another factor in why internships were so hard to come by this summer.
My recent graduate D starts her job on Monday, virtually of course. It was originally scheduled for June but postponed. Her company gave them their starting bonuses on their original scheduled start date. It was helpful for the new hires who actually needed money, and essentially locked these kids into the jobs. They were told they would have to pay it back if they decided not to keep the job (actually had to sign something to that effect).
My DS20 is still not fully on board at his FT job. The employer still has some working remotely and all of their onboarding is in disarray. His supervisor has been trying to expedite things but not successful yet. DS20 is bored and frustrated. Still does not know when his first paycheck will arrive and if/when he will be on site. Hoping for clarity very soon!!
My kids in their own crazy way got something out of the summer. my D17 ended up being a supervisor at a day camp; not quite the unit head job for the sleepaway camp she was suppose to be at , but somewhat close. Since her college is all online she is staying home and they are going to continue to have her work part time in their “K-5 virtual school/after school” program. She graduates in Dec and is clueless as to what to do yet.
My S19, who half hazardly applied to jobs, and did not even get hired at Kroger! ended up finding a opportunity to build his resume is game design Basically a new game came out and he found others who liked the game and wanted to write mods for it. He learned a lot about “git” and now the CEO of the company is interested in the work these guys have done and is giving them access to future releases. My son thinks he can get a coop there next summer now. His school is going back for residential and hybrid classes
So not a total netflix /youtube summer
D finished out her co-op successfully. She had an hour long report out presentation via zoom and they are excited to have her back. They offered her a 4th term next summer if she wants it. Excellent to have the offer if she can’t find something else (the big school job fair is virtual this year) and she’s able to tailor make the 4th term to whatever and wherever she wants it to be. I’m happy for her to have some of the stress off. She’ll be back to this company in January for spring semester.
DS (20) who graduated in May accepted a job back in October. Was supposed to start last week, but the start date now pushed to January. All emails continue to be positive, that they are honoring their offer. They are paying out the rest of the sign on bonus (he got first half last December) in September and also paying a stipend. To me this shows they are committed to the new hires. He will be moving several states away so we are glad he did not sign a lease for August. We are thinking that there is still a chance that he will start remotely so he is holding off on the apartment search for now. He spent his summer instacarting and made some decent money so will most likely continue for now. DD (22), was able to put a few things together- she remotely TA’d a 400 level seminar class (as a rising junior), and spent the rest of the summer working as a research assistant for a friends daughter who is doing graduate research. (She got a small stipend). Not exactly the summer she was planning but at least she has stuff for the resume. I wish all of your kids much success as we moved forward in the time of Covid!
Lots of updates on D and her friends, all of whom graduated this year.
Two of her friends have taken jobs they found through AmeriCorps. The pay is peanuts, but they have moved pretty far away and are excited about working. I think they mostly took these jobs to get away from home, to be honest. Can’t blame them, I think all these students were sure they’d be living away from home before all this happened.
Another friend has a teaching job.
Two others have found jobs in research labs.
Another is working part time in a bridal salon while she continues to look for full time work. She actually loves working in the salon, because the women coming in are so happy. (Casual dresses are hot right now. Lots of backyard weddings!)
Other students she knows have been recalled for positions that were put on hold.
D has had good news. Recently, she was notified of an opening for a job that is in line with her long term plans, unlike the other job she was due to start in the fall. She got the job. Her salary will be a third of what she would have earned, but she is VERY happy about it. She was even fretting about “golden handcuffs” with the original job, haha. I’m glad money isn’t important to her, but I don’t think she fully understands yet that it’s nice to have. Far better though for her to be poor but happy.
S finished up his software engineering internship last week after giving a final presentation on his project. Even though the internship was remote it was a very positive experience. He had a very decent mentor and team manager. He went in at the beginning of the summer not knowing a particular scripting language and due to the sink or swim nature of his project assignment he came out proficient in it. I have to give S credit for doing this while living in a house with a dismantled kitchen with work tools and materials stacked every where. Let’s just say he learned to appreciate the grill and ordered a lot of pizza this summer.
In his final 1/1 meeting, the team manager gave him a good review and indicated that they are giving him return offer. Due to uncertainty of the job market and the stability and the pay level offered by this company he is probably going to forego waiting for his school’s recruiting season and fall career fair and just accept it. I know it nice to have competing offers to weigh against each other but I do not see how he could pull off the timing.
S completed his remote internship with a NYC IB a few weeks ago. He was definitely drinking from the fire hose. He is an Econ major with 0 finance or accounting background. It was as much of an intense language/vocabulary exercise as job training. I don’t think there was a night that he wasn’t working to at least midnight, and he worked half days most weekends. He found his stride the last 3 weeks, and enjoyed the work and people he was working with. He got a return offer and has already taken it. I am excited for him to start out in NYC making good $ for one of the top IB’s – brings me back to the start of my career in the mid 80’s living the single life in the Big City with money in my pockets (but not so much time to spend it!).
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D2 also finished her remote law internship with a positive note. She received very good review and was made an offer when she graduates. She said most of her friends from law school also received offers.
Our initial concern over the job market for our Spring 2021 graduate have dissolved. It’s actually been a very active recruiting cycle.
Seems like getting summer internships at IBs very hard. They seem to take too long to get back to you. Definitely have to apply to many and can’t depend on any one in particular.
That applies to pre-covid times too. Highly competitive for internships and jobs. Often times alums at those companies give preference to students from their alma mater as well.
Very long and grueling process. Son started the dance spring of sophomore year for a summer internship for junior summer. Went through a number of networking/information sessions and cocktail hours with a bunch of IB’s to start. Then apps opened up in the summer. At least for the top IB’s, there was an initial screen based I assume primarily on resume and department(s)/location(s) chosen. Then there was a one way recorded video interview (applicant logs in and answers canned on screen interview questions). Next there was a round of two way video interviews (this was pre-Covid). Finally there was a final in person almost full day of interviews. The process stretched through November. S thought the whole process in terms of time and preparation was equivalent to at least 1 class.
One advantage of coming from a feeder school that people don’t often mention is that my S could ask a bunch of upperclassmen friends who had IB jobs at the IB’s he was applying to what to expect during each stage and even insights to specific interviewers. This may be a much larger advantage these days than the “old boys” network.
Interviewing for a full-time position in 2021 is over. Done. Complete. Our S is very happy with the results and is looking forward to apartment hunting in Silicon Valley next spring (already investigating online). We’re very happy for him (and proud as well).